School’s out and a summertime of a fun is ahead

Wednesday

Jun 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2007 at 1:50 AM

Back in the day, as the saying goes, there was a time when the phrase “school’s out” was a time heralding a summer ahead full of fun and games. But of course, nothing ever turns out the way you think it will.

CHRONICLES

LORRAINE T. WELSH

Back in the day, as the saying goes, there was a time when the phrase “school’s out” was a time heralding a summer ahead full of fun and games. But of course, nothing ever turns out the way you think it will.

When I was a preschooler myself, I looked forward to the days when school was out because it meant my brother and all the other girls and boys in the neighborhood would be home all day and able to play with me for hours on end. It also meant that soon we would be traveling to my grandparents’ home for the summer where all my cousins would be as well.What fun we would have, playing outdoors on sunny days, or rummaging in the attic on rainy days! Oh, what treasures were there! Clothes from yesterday to play “dress up” in. Books for all ages. Victrola records of songs from way back during World War I (we just called it “The Great War”). There were helmets and knapsacks and canteens, souvenirs of that time as well. And dozens of other surprises — a new discovery every day.Sometimes, my brother and I would travel to the Catskill Mountains, where my uncle had a farm. There we would visit a neighbor’s pasture and lead the cows home for milking. Then we would watch the milking process in the barn, and bring home a pail of the warm, bubbly stuff for our family. Other days we would help pick the peaches and pears in the fruit orchard, and then watch as the women in the family cooked them to make jelly or put them up in jars for next winter’s delightful desserts.When we would finish with our day’s “work,” sometimes we would be driven to a pond for swimming, or else we would curl up in one of the hammocks or beach chairs and just nap away in the warm breezes. These delightful summers lasted for a number of years, until World War II came along to break up the fun. Soon my brother and young uncles went off to fight in the war, and so did many of the young boys I had known in the neighborhood. All that were left were women, old men and children.After a while, when I was in high school, I found summers to be boring and long. We could no longer take long trips or visit the farm, because gasoline was rationed. I went food shopping with my mother until she, too, took a job “for the duration” in her old company, releasing a man for armed forces duty. There was one branch of the company that had an all-male office force, and mother was asked to “colonize” the office with female clerical help and become the office manager and “den mother.”In summers, when school stopped for several months, I was lonely. I would read, do chores around the house, get dinner started and generally just while away the time, until I begged my parents to let me get a summer job like so many of my friends. It took some doing, but they finally agreed.The summer I turned 16, I went to work at Woolworth’s on 39th Street and 5th Avenue as a “counter girl” making sandwiches and dispensing sodas and Cokes. The next year, I was in the same job when the war ended and I was there, at Times Square, when the announcement came that the Japanese had surrendered and the war was over. (I have written before about this exciting event.)For weeks after, I was only a stone’s throw away from the side door where we could see the servicemen marching home in triumph from their ships after they had just disembarked. Oh, how we all cheered and applauded! Some even cried a little. It was a stirring and happy period to welcome them back. Within weeks, my brother returned home and so did my uncles, and we were a family again.Then my family of four — Mom, Dad, brother and I — moved to Needham. It was 1945 and I have been here ever since. Summers since my arrival here have not been the same quiet, peaceful days as they were in my childhood, when I would lie on the grass and look for four-leaf clovers. There was an electric-like hustle and bustle in the air, and we all got caught up in it. I have worked ever since, even after I was married, and summer consisted of a few weeks’ of vacation time when we occasionally traveled or else stayed home and worked in the garden.As a youngster, I sometimes resented the summer of no school, because I loved the daily learning lessons and the camaraderie of my classmates. Today, now that I am retired from a regular job, I find myself back in Stage One where I am sitting around and reading, or resting, or planning to do things that I never do.Are we ever satisfied? Growing up, do we ever enjoy the present, or do we always look forward to something else in future? For someone my age, the future no longer looms ahead, and the line between it and the present is blurred.I would love to languish in a hammock, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to get out of it. I would love to make jelly again, but I couldn’t do more than just taste it, as the sugar would be too much for my system. It would be idyllic to lead the cows home to milking, but I couldn’t walk over the hills and hummocks without falling and being trampled, no doubt, beneath Bossy’s feet.So I sit here instead and reminisce. What a glorious life it has been, both in the doing and in the memory! And I am grateful.